Manjunath Olekar, a 67-year-old resident of Shivamogga, India, accidentally shot one of his party guests with a burst of celebratory gunfire and then died of a heart attack on New Year’s Eve.
India’s WION News said Olekar “misfired” his gun while loading it on New Year’s Eve. The misfired bullet struck a 34-year-old party guest identified as a friend of Olekar’s son named Vinay U.
Vinay was rushed to the hospital but died of his injuries on Sunday night. Olekar “went into shock and collapsed,” and was later pronounced dead of a heart attack.
According to the authorities, Olekar had a license for the gun, and has “used it in the last few years to mark the New Year’s arrival.”
Like most law enforcement agencies, the Shivamogga police severely disapprove of celebratory gunfire, which is distressingly common in parts of India.
“A firearm can be used only in certain circumstances. Not to fire in the air to celebrate,” a police official said.
The Hindu reported on Sunday that at least eight people died in “incidents related to New Year revelry,” across India, most of them in vehicle accidents.
One of the non-vehicular deaths occurred in Bengaluru when a 38-year-old factory worker had too much to drink, attempted to leap from a fourth-story apartment terrace to an adjacent building, and failed.
Another was a 28-year-old man in Chintamani named Naveen Reddy, who was struck in the head by a beer bottle during a tipsy argument with friends at a dhaba, or roadside cafe. Naveen’s friends abandoned him when they saw he was bleeding profusely from the head. The staff of the dhaba rushed him to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead on arrival.